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Wolseley has won the Building Material & Merchants award in Britain’s Most Admired Companies Awards 2006, run by the UK's top business magazine Management Today.

The Most Admired Companies Awards identify companies in Britain that are most well regarded by peers and rivals in their own industry.

Canvassing the opinions of 220 of the UK’s largest companies, they are the only awards of their type in the UK. These 220 companies are made up of the 10 largest UK-based companies by market capitalisation across 22 different sectors. Analysts at leading City investment firms are also polled. The results were announced in London at the end of November .

"Wolseley, the world’s leading plumbing and heating gear supplier, romped home this year three points clear of the field. Double-digit growth made it a City darling in a sector not renowned for them. Recent activities include European expansion, with the £1.35bn purchase of Danish rival DT. CEO Chip Hornsby expects to spend £400m on acquisitions this year and is issuing 60m new shares to cut debt and finance growth." (from Management Today, December 2006).

Other winners in the same category were Marshalls (2nd), Pilkington (3rd) and SIG (4th) .

Wolseley was also recognised as number 27 in the most admired league table out of 239 companies surveyed by the magazine.